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Wondering what our chapters do? They provide local area support to the Conservancy and plan several fundraisers throughout the year. Chapters work closely with Conservancy staff to recruit members, secure local media coverage, and raise public awareness of the SS United States. If you'd like to see if we have a Chapter in your area, please visit our Chapters Page.  And if there is not yet a Chapter near you, please reach out to us and we'll help you start one!

Florida.  Calling all Florida residents! Would you like to take a more active role in helping to save the SS United States? We'd love to hear from you! The former chairman of the Conservancy's Philadelphia Chapter has relocated to Florida and is looking for members to help get our Florida Chapter launched!  The Chapter is planning a holiday celebration in December as its official kick-off meeting for anyone who would like to become a member.

by Allee Berger

When Sherry White and her family learned that her father, Major Clayton C. Fenton of the United States Marine Corps, was ordered to transfer to the Naval Headquarters in London, England, they were given two options for travel: to fly or to sail aboard the SS United States.  Sherry recalls that her father "had the insight to know that the cruise would be an experience unlike anything [they] had ever had before and would be worth the extra days of traveling."  Upon setting sail on July 18, 1963, Sherry and her family knew this voyage would quickly become an unforgettable experience.

Sherry's father and her mother, Dorothy, stowed away in a Cabin Class stateroom along with her nine-month-old brother, Clay.  Sherry, who was 13 at the time, and her sister Abbey, 15, stayed in their own cabin. Together, Sherry and Abbey were given free rein aboard the ship, an unfamiliar privilege for the young girls.  Embracing their new-found independence, the two sisters attended social and entertainment events where they met "diverse teenagers from other states with whom they all shared experiences."  At one such event, Abbey reminisces about sitting around a large table in one of the ship's ballrooms watching professional dancers and even remembers one dancer winking at her!  The two sisters recount dining without their parents and exploring the strange, exotic offerings on the ship's menu alongside other teenagers.  Sherry recalls, "One delicacy on the menu continues to be a vivid memory after all these years--the offering was cold herring.  I could not imagine why anyone would ever order cold fish to eat!"

Revisiting her family's time aboard the SS United States, Sherry considers how formal their outfits were.  During the 1960s, she reflects on how this type of attire was appropriate, especially considering the first-class environment Sherry and her family were in.  Reading through copies of the Ocean Press, Sherry and her family's memories resurface further and spark flashbacks to the history they lived through: "Kennedy was President, Premier Khrushchev was the Russian dictator, and civil rights was the issue of the day.  Little did we know the President would be assassinated four months later."  

Fifty years later, Sherry and Abbey fondly remember "the spacious staterooms, the luxurious dining on the white tablecloths, the wide-screen theater that showed pre-release movies, and the stewards attending to our every need."  This voyage aboard the SS United States remains to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Sherry and her family that they continue to cherish to this day.